376 
AFRICA AND ITS EXPLORATION. 
mountain tops cut into the sky, forming a pleasing back¬ 
ground to the picturesque scene. 
Let us saunter through the streets of this African 
settlement, which has existed for close upon a century 
and a-half. In the days when Livingstone described 
the place, as he saw it on his westward journey of 
exploration over twenty years ago, Tette was a tolerably 
lively city. Many Europeans, principally Portuguese, 
helped to swell the commercial population, which lined 
the streets, and bartered with the black man for his 
treasures. Ivory, gold, as well as “ God’s image done in 
ebony,” were the saleable commodities drawn from the 
heart of the land. 
With the times, the scene has changed, and the men 
too ! Forgetting for a moment that much of the old 
prosperity of the place was built by inhuman slavery, 
one cannot help having a feeling of melancholy in wan¬ 
dering through the streets of the now desolate town. 
Had it been the abode of devils in times past, there 
would be a difficulty in triumphing over its decaying 
walls ; for men can never look with pleasure upon the 
evidences of Nature’s destructive powers. 
Solitude reigns supreme. On every side you see the 
wasting work of Time’s relentless hand. You see it 
in the crumbling ruins of houses, at one time inhabited 
by prosperous merchants. Indigo and other weeds now 
rise rank amid the falling walls, and upon spots where 
houses once stood. You see it in the church, which 
has now crumbled to the ground. Departed glory is 
knelled to you by the bells which toll from the slight 
structure—a sorry substitute for a church—where the 
Jesuit Fathers and their small flock now perform the 
holy rites of their creed. 
Earnest though these Fathers be, they must view with 
sadness the failure of the work of their predecessors, who, 
centuries before (for they were evidently among the 
first to set forth in these wilds), wandered amid the 
savage aborigines and courted martyrdom. Have both 
the labour of love and the sacrifice of life been fruitless ? 
To-day, if you make inquiries of a native grown to man- 
